March 14th is very nearly upon us once again, with everything just springing in to life it feels like the warmer weather would never return, I will get a couple of sessions in before the river closes it’s doors, Love or hate the close- season it’s a rest for nature, especially after the bitter winter we just had. I intended getting more time on the bank, but just before december I remember it reaching -20°, must of been mad to leave the house. But you don’t catch being indoors, I don’t mind being cold but that was just ball numbing! For the first time ever living on the trent for 38 year that I saw parts of the trent frozen over. I’m not complaining I’ve enjoyed every moment of being out there. A years fishing I will never forget.

Im Looking forward to the new season with a plan I’ll never give up on, Until then I will set my stall out for carp, happy fishing folks here’s to the new season.

Well another night under the stars, back on my beloved river,I just get this little feeling that it’s going to be a slow night, But I could be wrong,The peg I’m fishing is a deep hole about two meters from the bank. I had five fish from it last week so I know it’s a good spot! I’ve noticed the river is very quiet with no fish topping, Maybe that’s a sign, let’s hope my little baits work there magic.

Anyway the BBQ was superb with spring minted lamb, Its not all about catching sometimes just being here and absorbing your surroundings is good enough for me, I’ll keep you posted.

Fishing has always been in my blood. Since the age of five my grandad showed me how to read the river, looking for little telltale signs where fish may patrol. It wasn’t too long before I was catching nice size fish, chub mostly. Spending time on a river pays dividend, which was easy for me because the Trent ran beside my grandads field. So I had a half a mile stretch to my self, “happy days”.

Hemp was doing the business then and still doing so to this day. Having time to fish most days and nights I soon realised where different species would be feeding. Each swim would be completely different from the next. Having all this water to my self gave me the watercraft and knowledge to pick out the bigger fish.

This specimen fishing lark didn’t come cheap in them days. A pint of hemp would of been a week’s pocket money, so you had to put your bait in the right place.

It wasn’t until the the late 80s when I really started to hit the river hard. With a little more money I started experimenting with flavours and bulk seeds. Still using the same old paste tho! The bigger fish started to roll in Manley carp. I’m not going to bore you with a load of pictures with me and fish.

Out on the bank most nights was and still is a treat! It was in the early 90s when I threw all my attention on barbel, this fascinating fish didn’t come easy! It was all about timing, especially when targeting bigger fish, it took me three seasons to catch my first double. That was a good sized fish in those days. Still fishing for big chub and carp I managed to get the timing just right so i could get four hours chub/carp fishing in before I switched over to barbel. Nice having half a mile to play with, this way I had the best of both worlds.

Apparently barbel were uncatcheable in the winter months but bumping in to a chap called Archie Braddock put me in the right direction on winter bait, shall we say putting some spice in my life, and that it did! Flavoured particles defiantly worked for me, with good bait on a rising river in winter/summer you could see some real stocky big barbel on the bank.

Always the one for sticking to my guns I found a deep very snaggy swim – the one that produced the bigger fish. It was a very strange swim that could be dead for a week then go mental for two nights, I still don’t know what that was all about, may be moon phase! Might need another blog for that one, but that swim produced my first ever 14lb barbel.

We heard from a good source that big cats were coming out from Fraggle Rock, so up at 3:00am before any one else got there first, set up and baited up, we all worked hard trying to get those big cats to pick up on the trail,Things were very slow until midday when alarms started screaming again. Time to get the camera out.

Richard with 101lb well done mate.

The ninja Pete with a 166lbs

“What a fish”

I think we all needed a rest after that day.

Talk about leaving it to the last Minute. Wow what a result. A weeks fishing I will never forget.

Thanks to Harrisons tackle, lake-escapes & Fox International for making this possible.

Feeling I needed to catch a river monster of 50lb plus properly wouldn’t come off my local river the mighty Trent, “possible” who knows whats in there, stories say very few catfish prowl in parts but I needed to travel further afield, so talking to good sources in the tackle trade I was told to fish the river Ebro Spain.

The company I used was lake-escapes which was no let down! Arriving on a very sticky September Sunday evening, time for a quick beer then straight to bed. Wake up call at 4:00am, loaded boat and beer of course (after all it was a holiday!) The bait was being delivered to the bank! When the word delivered is used you think big! And yes it was! 250kilos of 20m pellets and that was for a day! S##t this could be expensive! But I was told the more bait the bigger the fish, so baits boated out and time for a beer! After literally five minutes a delkim roars off! Wow what a fight, felt nothing like it before, the pain! Had to be a catfish, a helping hand grabbed the leader and told me that it was a bigun! And that it was. 152lb my word, first fish of day! Stunned I had to sit down!

One very lucky bleeder.

Still stunned I managed to get a crafty “well deserved” beer! Overwhelmed with anticipation wondering what was to come to the bank next.

Three hours later and a little half cut “yes” the crafty old sod did it again! Man this catfishing was good fun! Just a scrape over 145lbs!

Unbelievable !!

The catfish gods were looking down at me that day. Or mr grothier had been doing his home work. What a place this was, the scenery, the atmosphere, the monsters of the deep. The heat. And this was just in the first day! Slept well that night well until 4:00am.

Day 2 “living the dream”

Back on the boat. Back on the bank. You should of seen the smile on my face! Baits placed out and half a sack of pellets over each bait, it wasn’t a cheap sport by all means but a fish of life time is priceless.

I decided to leave the cat rods as things were slow that morning so I got the carp rods set up, By 13:00am I had a flurry of carp on my pineapple popups up to 34lbs!

“Result”

Day 3 “Decision time”

Do I carry on catfishing or let the lads take my place on the rods, so that they had more chance of catching? We went as a team so you should fish as a team. Remember if you all chip in for bait it’s a team event, so I did my bit by baiting swims with the boat, very enjoyable too just sitting back and watching others catching.

“The scenery was incredible”.

You had to pull off the river by 10:00pm but to be quite honest we were ready for it. It’s a long day when the temperature is about 40° in the shade, I always managed to get one in before packing away. Not big by the Ebros standards but great fun on light tackle.

Day 4 “Needed more bait”.

The bait was rapidly running out so we all had to dig deep. With boat fully loaded more bait was being delivered to a new location, we just needed to hit this one right. So everyone got a good chance of these big cats, with time against us, we needed the fish gods to be back with us once again.

They certainly didn’t shine through that day, oh well you can’t get in right every time.